Asch's research - conformity SI

Question 1

Conformity

Answer 1

a change in a person’s behaviour or opinions as a result of real or imagined pressure from a person or group of people

Question 2

group size

Answer 2

Asch increased the size of the group by adding more confederates, thus increasing the size of the majority

Question 3

unanimity

Answer 3

the extent to which all the members of a group agree

unanimous agreement by all people involved; consensus

Question 4

task difficulty

Answer 4

Asch’s line-judging task is more difficult when it becomes harder to work out the correct answer

Question 5

confederate

Answer 5

a person who works with someone in secret- an accomplice

Question 6

baseline

Answer 6

an initial measure against which to compare to others

Question 7

Asch’s research

Answer 7

variables affecting conformity including group size, unanimity and task difficulty as investigated by Asch

Question 8

What did Asch’s baseline procedure assess?

Answer 8

to what extent people will conform to the opinion of others

Question 9

Asch’sfindings

Answer 9

• Genuine participants agreed with the confederates incorrect answer 36.8% of the time.
• 25% of participants never gave a wrong answer.

Question 10

Variables investigated by Asch:

Answer 10

• task difficulty
• group size
• unaminity

Question 11

group size details

Answer 11

Would the size of the group be more important than the agreement of the group

He varied the number of confederates from 1- 15 and found a curvilinear relationship.
→ conformity increased with group size

Thus suggesting most people are sensitive to the views of others.

Question 12

unanimity details

Answer 12

Would the presence of a non-conforming person affect the participants conformity

Participants conformed less with the presence of a dissenter (the person not conforming).

Thus suggesting that the influence depends largely on it being unanimous.

Question 13

task difficulty details

Answer 13

Would making the task harder affect the degree of conformity

Conformity increased as a result of informal social influence.

Question 14

+psychologist

jar of jelly beans experiments

Answer 14

**Jennes 1932 **
-War interrupted psychological research
-Asked people to guess how many jelly beans were in a jar individually
-Group arrived at a group estimate
-Afterwards all individuals changed their answers to be in line with the group estimate

Question 15

Strength

Asch

Answer 15

Research is supported from other studies for the effects of task difficulty
Lucas 2006

Question 16

limitation

conformity is more complex than asch suggested

Answer 16

• Lucas 2006
• Individual level factor can influence conformity

Question 17

limitation

limited application

Answer 17

• Participants were american men
• Us is individualist culture
• China is collectivist culture where conformity rates are higher

Question 18

limitation

task and situation were artificial

Answer 18

• Demand characteristics
• Findings don’t generalise real world situations

Question 19

limitation

extra evaluation

Answer 19

participants were deceived ETHICAL ISSUE but the ethical cost should be weighed up against the benefits gained from the study